M.B.A. Simulations

We use simulations in the master’s of business administration program in the capstone course as both an assessment and a teaching tool. In that course in particular, we’re using a simulation that puts the individual student at the helm of a business, a manufacturing business in this case, and they will compete as an individual against four computerized teams that are programmed to respond with specific strategies. And our students in that circumstance are making finance decisions, marketing decisions, production decisions, HR decisions, and really trying to see how the entire piece of what they’ve learned throughout the program, how these pieces fit together in helping to run a company. By the end of the course I think it’s almost universal that they have appreciated the simulation even if at times it might frighten them because they’ve never been running an entire organization. They come to see how exciting it is to do that and how much you have to be on the ball and see how things interact. And that’s part of what we want in the capstone course, for them to see that functional silo thinking is not very effective. So the simulation helps really bring home a number of important applied concepts as well as letting them see how the big picture fits together.